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Former first lady Michelle Obama chats with the public during a book tour to Washington Saturday. (Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post)
"T-shirts and Ladies, "shouted a part-time businessman, waving a heavy arm with Michelle Obama's smiling face. The "ladies" were Mrs. Obama's fans – mostly women but certainly more than a few men – who traveled to downtown Washington for the third leg of the former rock star's book tour, "Becoming".
"Make them jealous at work," cried another hawker as thousands of people broke into the Capital One Arena Saturday night to tell the woman that the host of the evening, Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, had described it as "tough to cook. "
But first, the merch.
Michelle's calendars were sold by young children trying to raise money. . . Something. A whole table was covered with DVDs presenting his "five most inspiring speeches". There were custom handbags decorated with what appeared to be each of his magazine covers. A "silk" scarf fuchsia with the image of the cover of his book on one side and inspirational quotes on the other. Michelle buttons, Michelle wallets, Michelle bonnets in all crazy colors, yellow highlighter with mandarin. There was a Michelle banana bag.
And it was right outside. Inside, the "official" t-shirt of the tour with a clear, un-pirated – uh, blurry – picture of Mrs. Obama at the front sold for $ 35. If you wanted long sleeves, it was $ 50. Onesies for Michelle's fanatics in grass were $ 20.
"Ladies," a woman shouted at her girlfriend's band as they passed the official merchandise tables of the tour, "are we here for these overpriced items?" Nobody raised a hand, which meant that the line was going faster for women like 45-year-old Lachelle Parker.
"She's killing him," Parker said while waiting, "a glass of mature woman" in hand, for a $ 35 "candle" candle (which we can only assume felt like inspiration and empowerment). ). "She's doing a Beyoncé," she continued, buying a $ 36 book before the arena. "I am super hype. She is a pioneer. And I love him. "
Everyone in the arena loved her, admired her, inspired her, and wanted some of them to turn away from her.
"I'm thinking of becoming," said 41-year-old Katrell Mendenhall, while she was standing next to her mother. "I think every woman and man here is trying to reach something."
[[[[By unveiling new memoirs, Michelle Obama candidly tells her story]
Five minutes from the start time of the event, the crowd has already been steeped in everything that looks like an eternity – merchandise, life-size Instagram portraits, sparkling energy – and more.
A group of half a dozen teenage scouts rushed into their section, swinging waistcoat, while Mary Contee used a stick like a scepter to slip into her place with her two daughters and granddaughter. Her 70th birthday was last week, she said, and it was her gift.
It's hard to define when a book tour is no longer really a book tour, but this event seemed to be the decisive difference. Is it when it comes to selling basketball arenas and not decreasing bookstores? Check. When tickets go for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars? Check. When the majority of the crowd has not even read the book yet? When white parents bring their 10-year-olds as candy (and classes), and larger black women bring their 70-year-olds for the same reason? Check and check.
Inside the arena, Michelle Obama's personal reading list was thrilling – Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Alessia Cara, and Mary J. Blige – as photos of her over the years paraded through the big screens. Thirty minutes after the scheduled start of the event, a crowd of participants was still around the block. Meanwhile, the crowd inside was plunged into a frenzy with a video montage of Ms. Obama's greatest dance successes – with talk show host Jimmy Fallon, Barack Obama and once with a turnip . It's Michelle Obama or bust.
The crowd watches Michelle Obama in conversation with Valerie Jarrett. (Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post)
Finally, a voice rose from behind the ivy curtains on the main stage.
"Hey, Washington, D.C.!" Tinkered the former first lady – or "always" the first lady, according to this crowd, backstage at 20:47. "I have a question for you: who are you becoming?"
Alicia Keys's "Girl on Fire" playing in the background, Mrs. Obama paved the scene in a black draped and decorated with crystals. The applause shook the room, but just as suddenly, a deep silence took over. For an hour and a half, Jarrett provided the road signs in Mrs. Obama's story as the former First Lady plunged into her story, one story after another.
She talked about all: from in vitro to marriage counseling, from the South Shore to Buckingham Palace, Princeton to its first black Saab. Nothing seemed forbidden. Obama's voice echoed through the sold-out arena as she got rid of a truism after overcoming the doubt of overcoming self-doubt, ignoring insults but admitting pain and placing herself first. "Say it!" And "Yassssss" filled the beams like "amens" in this crowd.
As the gab party began to wind up, Mrs. Obama admitted that she and her husband had just come, in 2018, to start thinking about all that they had accomplished. "I just looked at him and said," Man, you did that, "she recalls.
And speaking of …
The former president himself made a surprise appearance on the stage with flowers just as the night was ending. "Oh, my God!", Shouted someone (everyone?) As the crowd got up and stayed there until Obama told them to "sit down" "while he was perched on the arm of Michelle's chair. He had planned to stay some time, or at least long enough to understand the story of their first meeting: Yes, he was late. Yes, he was wet (it was raining and he did not have an umbrella). And yes, Michelle had assumed that with a name like Barack Hussein Obama, he would be a nerd. He thought that she was a little – how do you say. . . edgy? – but cute.
"She's really tall," he recalls seeing Michelle for the first time. "And most of them are legs."
"Very good," reprimanded Mrs. Obama, her hand on the thigh of the former president. "There are children here."
But in the end, it was not just the legs.
"She was one of a kind. I did not meet anyone who was so strong and honest, "he said. "Someone I just thought was a rock. Someone I knew at that time that I could always count on. "
"Michelle Obama and her husband, President Barack Obama, ladies and gentlemen," Jarrett announced when the couple stepped out of the scene, hand in hand.
It's been almost two years since Michelle Obama became the first lady of the club, but her fans in the edible halls and those who helped "Becoming" to sell 725,000 units on the first day of her release – it looks like she's not. never left.
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